


The Brains and The Brawn

by jadethestone



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Brotherly Love, Electrocution, Gen, Hugs, Humor, Injury, Math, Memes, Tears, like the tone of the show but darker, the big bros, there needs to be more Donnie and Raph content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 0
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24923713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadethestone/pseuds/jadethestone
Summary: In an attempt to thwart another plan by The Purple Dragons, Donnie and Raph find themselves in their toughest situation yet - in which Donnie is left without his tech, and Raph is forced to do MATH.
Relationships: Donatello & Raphael (TMNT), Donnie & Raph
Comments: 228
Kudos: 414





	1. Cover

**Author's Note:**

> I’m making another “Rise” comic because this fandom (and the franchise as a whole if I’m being honest) absolutely NEEDS more Donnie-Raph team-up content. I got an idea, so might as well provide!
> 
> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627) and [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-start-reading)


	2. "Greeeaaat..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-P1-840811901) and [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/617145429827682304/the-brains-and-the-brawn-p1-cover-table-of).
> 
> \- This comic may be a bit more talk-y since Donnie has the propensity to info-dump.  
> \- The sign on the secret hideout says "Purple Dragons" in katakana. The Japanese on the Nakamura building (and this is canon) literally means something to the effect of "calculation industry"... I guess that works for a tech company?  
> \- Sorry, no Leo or Mikey in this comic; they're busy with their own shenanigans.  
> \- I always feel 2-sided about seeing/drawing Donnie's real shell. On one hand, it's a beautiful shell and I really like to draw it and I wish we saw it more. On the other hand, it miiiiiiight not be the best thing in some more dangerous situations with him being a soft-shelled turtle? Not that that danger has explicitly been brought up in canon, but I sometimes worry.  
> \- These boys 'bout to have what we experts call, a bad time.


	3. Villainous Team Pose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-P2-841447558) and [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/617864820122927104/the-brains-and-the-brawn-p2-covertable-of)
> 
> Some Notes:  
> \- Time for a healthy dose of Raph angst.  
> \- This page contains my first attempts at drawing the Purple Dragons. I'm very bad about doing practice or warm-up drawings, so I kind of just jumped into drawing them.  
> \- The way I draw humans is very different from how "Rise" draws humans, so this was my attempt at marrying the two styles? Either way, expect the Purple Dragons to be slightly off-model.  
> \- It wasn't until I started doing this page that I figured out all of the Purple Dragon's names. There's Kendra, Jeremy, and Jase (or Jason).


	4. Donnie does the Purple Dragons' homework

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-P3-842209276) and [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/618408957310091264/the-brains-and-the-brawn-p3-covertable-of).
> 
> \- Thank you Mr. Exposition  
> \- The first few panels were meant to be Donnie yelling at the door from the end of the first page. Hope that was apparent...  
> \- I had fun drawing the various Donnie expressions on this page.  
> \- So, the premise for this comic was largely based on the 2012 TMNT episode called "The Fourfold Trap" wherein Donnie must complete puzzles in time or else get electrocuted. I just twisted some things around for this.  
> \- The Purple Dragons are jerks.  
> \- Raph can't do math.


	5. Raph breaks something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-P4-843391711) and [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/619221707991941120/the-brains-and-the-brawn-p4-covertable-of)
> 
> \- I actually researched math problems and math theories for this comic, even though I’m closer to Raph in terms of my math knowledge (though not nearly as bad, haha).  
> \- Drawing the keyboard was the worst.  
> \- The 11/12th panels where Donnie's like "Please tell me you know 1+2" were some of the first panels I drew as part of concept art for this comic.  
> \- In the show, Raph had a hard time mathing out the 2-year age difference between him and Mikey, and he freaked out about being alone for 5 minutes - this is me taking both of those things literally.


	6. Raph fixes something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627) and [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-start-reading).
> 
> This is why I really want an episode featuring Donnie and Raph - one is physically strong but experiences a lot of internal issues, and the other is mentally strong and experiences a lot of external issues. And sometimes their problems can overlap and they can find some common ground in that. There’s so much character potential, and I hope I could explore a bit of that here.
> 
> Also, fun fact - the “Hodge Conjecture” is a so far unsolved problem in algebraic geometry. I thought it’d be fun to insinuate that Donnie can solve unsolved math problems.


	7. The answer to life, the universe, and everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627) and [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-start-reading).
> 
> \- A perfect Euler brick is another one of those technically not solved yet math problems  
> \- I’m more proud than I should be about the “I thought he was a turtle” joke  
> \- Thank you to Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy  
> \- Somehow the dialogue bubble for when Raph says “42″ on was layer 42 in my art file and I could not have done that if I’d planned it


	8. Obscure science reference said with total confidence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627) and [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-start-reading)
> 
> Me: hates drawing inorganic and mechanical things  
> Also me: creates an entire comic with the main enemies being mechanical drones and machines
> 
> I both hated and loved drawing this page. The drones were a pain, but I’m pretty okay with their design. Being able to draw a bunch of fun bo staff action poses was really enjoyable tho.


	9. High-stakes Sudoku

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627) and [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-start-reading).
> 
> \- Ah, angsty page. Things are only going to get worse from here.  
> \- This page was a pain to draw (in some cases literally), glad it’s over with!  
> \- I used the drones from the episode “Mind Meld” for this page along with my original drone designs.  
> \- That math problem at the beginning is indeed a difficult one - it took mathematicians 65 years to solve and they were only able to do so with the aid of a supercomputer.  
> \- My headcanon that Raph likes puzzles still stands.


	10. Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Important announcement!**
> 
> Btw, [I’m on Twitter](https://twitter.com/jadethest0ne) now and am posting my art and comics and such over there. I’ve been doing so lately to try to save this show, since Nickelodeon did it dirty and unceremoniously cut the second season short and cancelled it without telling anybody! If you could, please do what you can and blog/reblog and tweet/retweet things on tumblr and twitter to get the #saverottmnt hashtag trending. We’re hoping to either change Nickelodeon's mind and bring back the show or try to get Netflix to pick up the series as a whole since they're going to be hosting the movie.
> 
> I'm gathering together with a bunch of other fans and we're planning on flooding twitter (and tumblr) **every Saturday at 6pm EST** with the #saverottmnt hashtag. We were successful to get it trending on twitter the last couple days, but in order to make it less stressful for folks, we're gonna shoot for once a week. When doing so, please use the following hashtags and mentions to get the right people’s attention (and if you have more, feel free to add on): #saverottmnt #rottmnt #supportrottmnt #RiseOfTheTMNT @NickAnimation @Nickelodeon @netflix @BrianRobbinsTV @ViacomCBS @TMNT @reedhastings


	11. Hang in there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a reminder to please help do what you can to spread the #saverottmnt hashtag on social media to get nickelodeon and netflix's attention.  
> Every **Saturday at 6pm EST** we're trying to get the hashtag trending on twitter.  
> When doing so, please use the following hashtags and mentions to get the right people’s attention (and if you have more, feel free to add on):  
> #saverottmnt #rottmnt #supportrottmnt #RiseOfTheTMNT @NickAnimation @Nickelodeon @netflix @BrianRobbinsTV @ViacomCBS @TMNT @reedhastings 
> 
> As for this page, this was the first page I sketched completely when making this comic.
> 
> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-and-The-Brawn-P10-851647829), [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/626109263838887937/the-brains-and-the-brawn-p10-covertable-of), and now [twitter](https://twitter.com/jadethest0ne/status/1292628713956245506).


	12. An in-depth analysis of the Jupiter Jim canon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I somehow managed to get this posted in time for Rise’s b-day! Over on twitter, we’re trying to get the #renewrise hashtag trending in honor of the show’s first airing.
> 
> As for this page - this was the first piece of dialogue that I scripted for this comic. It was fun to make up fan discourse about a show within a show. Also, this page is a bit of a “break” in the intensity. The calm before the storm, if you will.
> 
> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627), [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-start-reading), or [twitter](https://twitter.com/jadethest0ne/status/1292628713956245506).


	13. Donnie fails a math test

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A warning about future pages - things will only get more intense from here on out. Keep an eye on the tags.
> 
> I’ve only got like one more page of having to deal with mechs and drones and stuff and then I’m done! As frustrating as it was drawing the mech, I had a lot of fun drawing more dynamic poses for Donnie and going crazy with the panels!
> 
> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627), [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-im), or [twitter](https://twitter.com/jadethest0ne/status/1292628713956245506).


	14. Keep it together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This page was hard to draw, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. I was trying out new techniques and such.  
> Just a reminder from page 4, breaking the quiz screen counts as an incorrect answer. Also if he gets one more incorrect answer, he’ll fail the quiz.  
> If it wasn’t obvious, the events of this page happen roughly at the same time as the events from the previous page.
> 
> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627), [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-start-reading), or [twitter](https://twitter.com/jadethest0ne/status/1292628713956245506).


	15. Static

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a mini-break on this for the holidays. I’m really happy to be back making more BnB!  
> I think I affected myself with the angst on this page. But finally, after 13 pages, Raph and Donnie are in the same room!
> 
> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627), [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-start-reading), or [twitter](https://twitter.com/jadethest0ne/status/1292628713956245506).


	16. Reach

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so far the longest page I’ve made for this comic. And Raph got to do his thing - SMASH!
> 
> Honestly though, I feel like this might be the meanest cliffhanger I’ve left y’all with...
> 
> Read on [deviantart](https://www.deviantart.com/jadethestone/art/The-Brains-And-The-Brawn-Cover-839529627), [tumblr](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/616471580553494528/the-brains-the-brawn-cover-start-reading), or [twitter](https://twitter.com/jadethest0ne/status/1292628713956245506).


End file.
